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n Wednesday, the Constitutional Court declared that female legislative candidates would be '€œprioritized'€ and not merely considered for legislative seats, in the event that both male and female candidates from one political party won enough votes for a seat in the local or national legislative bodies.

The amendment to the 2012 Legislative Election Law will not affect this year'€™s election, which has already seen many more female candidates thanks to this law and the election organizer regulation, which states political parties will be disqualified from contesting an electoral district if they fail to fulfill a 30 percent quota for women on their candidate list for that district. Many parties protested, saying it was hard to get willing and qualified women.

Although the legislation was a landmark development in attempts to get more representation for women, petitioners said that the fielding of women as candidates was far from a guarantee that they would get elected. With a presumably more democratic proportional open list system for the general election, candidates now face rivals from their own party. Many women lack the experience, public recognition and financial power compared to their male counterparts. Citing the constitutional guarantee of equal rights, petitioners said legal uncertainty had contributed to the low representation of women '€” almost half the population.

The petitioners, including the Association of Indonesian Women for Justice (APIK), cited the planned ban against women straddling motorcycles in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, as just one example of what decision makers can get away with when women have a weak voice in society.

So why not just focus on training women, as many have turned out to be pretty airheaded lawmakers? Scores of male lawmakers have turned out to be corrupt and unintelligent, but it'€™s women that people mock because of their gender. Even former president Megawati Soekarnoputri resented the strong demand of women'€™s groups for the 30 percent quota for women as legislative members or candidates.

Ideally, women should prove themselves to be capable and fit to lead. But it is unfair to assume that women should just take the lead in areas where mostly male policymakers have passed 342 discriminative policies, including 265 directly targeting women according to the National Commission on Violence against Women '€” up from 154 such policies in 2009.

The higher number of discriminatory policies, sexual violence and the soaring maternal mortality rate, are among several factors that activists say point to the crucial need for stronger awareness and understanding of society among decision makers.

Female policymakers are, however, no guarantee for a better society; Indramayu, West Java, still has a high rate of marriages of minors and trafficking of women despite having a female regent. And the historically high representation of women, or 18 percent of the 560-seat House of Representatives from the 2009 election, has not resulted in much better policies.

Nevertheless, we laud the court verdict, for it should further boost efforts to increase the contribution of millions of women to their communities and country.